Wood salutes Irish team spirit

Triumphant Irish captain Keith Wood last night saluted the fantastic team spirit which saw his side beat England in a compelling Six Nations finale at Lansdowne Road. Wood scored Ireland's only try in a 20-14 victory which denied England a Grand Slam in the last match for the third year running.

The Irish hooker led by example in a phenomenal Irish display and then said: "I was absolutely delighted with the team effort. The management, medical staff, the fitness guys and all the backroom staff have been magnificent. We've had a few sad days in the past two weeks. There have been a few family bereavements among the backroom staff and a wedding. It literally has been like Four Weddings and a Funeral."

"But we had six subs who came off the bench today and they each made a telling contribution. We worked ourselves to a standstill and at times we had nothing left. But the subs came on and we put trust in them to do the job," Wood added.

England still retained the Six Nations Championship by virtue of a superior points record and Wood rued Ireland's only defeat against Scotland. "Scotland was a right mess for all of us," said Wood. "We played badly that day and the team carried the can but we've had two good weekends back to back and I don't think England were as sharp as us today."

It was the inspiration of Wood's opening try after 18 minutes, when he threw the ball in from a lineout, received the palm down and roared through a huge English gap, which was the catalyst for Ireland's winning performance.

"I just caught the ball and fell over," was Wood's description of his touchdown. "It was a move we hadn't used for a long time though we did practise it once in training this week and it worked. I saw the gap there and just went through it."

Irish coach Warren Gatland said: "The effort was fantastic (yesterday) and the crowd were unbelievable. It was a pretty special day for Irish rugby. In the last 18 months we have won seven out of nine of the major games. The next step is trying to compete with the best teams in the world. We have got New Zealand coming in a few weeks and that is a huge task for us. But today will give us confidence and there is a feeling that we can only get better over the next two years."

Filed by Sinéad Kissane